How would you say becoming a LEO affects your life?

[LongArm2]

Im just trying to get some insight into how you guys/gals feel that becoming or being a LEO has affected your life both mentally, physically and personally. I know acheiving this goal is one that any interested in LE strives for and im sure it makes a significant and profound impact on your life. Anyone like to share some feelings or insights on it?

[1 of the Few]

I have always wanted to be Cop since I was born. After coming out of the Marine Corps in 91 I got on Patrol for the first time as a LE in 93. I was 173pnds when I started and after 11 years of being on patrol,school resource officer, detective, I am now 205 Pnds at 5f9i.
So physically you could gain weight depanding on what your assignment is. I never really gained any until I was a Detective, bad hours being on call, bad eating habits and stress all add to it.

Mentally, being a cop is very important to me. The best way to describe it is by saying that this job is like being on a Roller Coaster of Emotions all of the time. You really never know when a bad call will just pop up in you mind, maybe at work, maybe while you and your wife are out eating dinner, maybe when your playing with you kids. This job will change you no doubt about it. The trick is being able to deal with these things when they come up. Personally I would never do any thing else for a living but being a cop. I hope this helps.

[SD7]

Becoming a cop was something I wanted since I was very young. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do. I have been on the job for 3 years now.

When I went to the academy, I like almost everyone out there had the illusion that I would help "save the world". That's not reality. You eventually become cynical and realise that the only people who understand cops are cops. You also develop a weird sense of humor and learn how to play cruel jokes on your co workers. Like recently a partner of mine, put a very large frozen spider in my sergeants desk. Now my sergeant hates spiders (really hates spiders, scared to death of them) so guess who gets to get rid of the spider. Yours truely. So to alleviate that problem, I put the spider in his coffee mug. Where it still waits.

There are times where I think back on the horendous things I have seen and look for a reason why. Only to find there are no reasons. You just need to learn to deal with it. If you don't you have 3 options 1) you will quit, 2) you will find an escape through alcohol, or drugs, or 3) you will eat your gun. Luckily I have a great bunch of people that I work with. They are my brothers and sisters on the department. I also have lots of support through my family and I have a wonderful girlfriend with three kids who I'm crazy about, who is the daughter of a state trooper and the sister of 3 cops. So that helps.

After all the depressing stuff I just wrote. Here's the good side. You become part of a family. Every cop in this country and around the world is a member of that family. I have officers in Austrailia, Germany, Russia, Italy and other places who have told me if I am ever in their neck of the woods, I have a place to stay.

The best part of the job is " you get to lock up the people who need locking up, help the people who need help and you get to work with some of the finest people you will ever know"

[retdetsgt]

Depends. Some people live and breathe the job like it's their total essence. Others, like me, looked at it as a job and nothing more. I did the absolute best job I could do when I was working, but when I was off duty, I was the guy next door. I didn't prance around carrying 6 off duty guns looking for potential robbers everytime I went into a store to buy a loaf of bread. And I served 27 years in a major city with that attitude.

Physically, it made me stay in better shape than I probably would have if I'd chosen another profession. It's stupid to let yourself get out of shape in this job. It's not often you have to get physical, but I'd be damned if I was going to die of a heart attack fighting some 18 year old when I was 50.

Mentally, it taxed my ability to accept life on life's terms. I had to accept that everything probably happens for a reason and it's not mandatory that I know the reason why. Also I had to learn to take job satisfaction in the part that I played and not pay attention to what happened afterwards. I'm responsible for the effort, not the results. If some dirtbag walks out of court, I just had to make sure it wasn't my fault. If it was someone else's, it was their problem. I didn't need to lose sleep over the action of others.

I'm glad I was a cop, I had a lot of fun on the job. I worked with some great people and some real characters! I feel good that I put a lot of bad guys away and helped a lot of other people out as I did it. Being a cop is more than doing things to people. It's also doing things for them.